Backstage Update on Rourke & Jericho, the SD Before WrestleMania

– There is talk about taping the SmackDown before WrestleMania on April 2nd instead of April 3rd, so that they can have the day to post produce the event. No final decision has been made to do the show live, but it will be either on the 2nd or 3rd from the Reliant Center in Houston.

– The original plan for WrestleMania was to be Chris Jericho vs. Mickey Rourke in some form of boxing match, with Ric Flair in the corner of Rourke. That may still happen, but if Rourke ends up not coming back into the angle, there are two ways the angle could go. The first is the Jericho vs. Flair match, which seems to be already teased. The second is a match between Chris Jericho and Steve Austin. Austin reportedly says Jericho is one of the few people he would trust to have a match with at this point, and also, it would play into Jericho’s recent promo work, where he made fun of “washed up Hall of Famers.”

There is belief among some that Rourke is just holding off until the Academy Awards are over on February 22nd to see if he wins an award for The Wrestler.